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Pharmasim

What Did We Learn From Pharmasim?In our experience with Pharmasim we learned that Marketing decision making must be very sensitive and responsive to everything going on in the industry which is very complex. Consumer responses to marketing tactics can be volatile and unpredictable and no idea is guaranteed to work well. Marketing is a matter of meticulous research, assumptions, planning, and volatility at times. Overall we took away two major points: 1) that it is important to consider the product lifecycle in evaluating how to promote businesses and, 2) that the “Sweet Spot” as a competitive advantage should be the greatest point of consideration when evaluating how to best gain leverage to beat the competition in the minds of consumers. Professor Yang constantly reminded us with every lecture that Marketing is dynamic and encompasses a deeper thought process than generally perceived as it requires constant consideration of infinite variables that affect consumers’ thought processes. The position of Chief Marketing Officer is generally fading across industries however; we find it to be a great necessity. Marketing plans are closely tied to stock prices and “the bottom line” of costs vs. profits for companies and need a CMO to closely monitor this. The slightest changes in sales tactics could mean immediate growth or likewise, immediate demise of a company. Our Initial Strategy

Reviewing the segment, target and position of the company from the case we received, we decided that we would need a few focal points in order to boost our sales. Given the company’s initial competitive position as the brand of over-the-counter relief with the highest brand awareness at 74.1%, largest market share at 40.4%, and highest sales of liquid cold medicine at $355 million we agreed that our main focus should be to simply maintain Allround’s position as the leader with full market coverage including all demographics of adults. Allround’s formula was higher than their...

...﻿PharmaSim Project
Notes / Tips / Questions / Ideas
General Case Notes
The objectives and goals of Allstar are to look for new opportunities in emerging market with support from healthy and growing cash flow, to introduce new product, to maintain leadership and to maintain long-term profitability and market share in an increasingly competitive and changing environment.
Certain measurements are introduced to weight the success and progress of the objectives such as feedbacks from customers and retailers, keeping tracks on our marketing report and purchasing and analyzing the marketing research reports.
With increasing budget Allstar has, high market share in cold category and leadership in this market are promised.
Limitations on product line as Allstar does not manufacture any drugs in the area of cough, allergy and nasal category but cold in liquid form have a huge concern from end-user point of view.
As for the customers of Allstar, they have a great need in OTC cold remedy market.
Consumers have negative attitude toward alcohol in the drug formulation and Customers think capsule is more convenient than liquid form.
Several options to react to the current situation including reformulation or line extensions in terms of formula, increasing sales forces, gaining more support from retailers to get better shelf space placement and promotional programs, issuing more coupons to motivate repurchases to improve our retention rate and adjusting sales force...

...PharmaSim SWOT analysis and 10 year goals
for AllStar Brand Management Team
MBA 6210 Marketing Management
Introduction:
Allstar’s Pharmaceutical division has a multi-symptom cold OTC medication (Allround) that is competing against nine brands from four competitors. The intent of this exercise is to evaluate Allround’s current position in the market, by analyzing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. There is also a proposed 10 year goal plan and strategy to establish Allstar as the industry leader of the OTC cold remedy market, while maintaining long term sustaining profitability.
SWOT Analysis:
Company
Allstar is one of the leading companies in the OTC cold and allergy remedy market with the second highest sales in the industry the previous year. Its Allround product is the market leader in cold and allergy relief segments. Allround is a significant contributor towards AllStar’s sales and is viewed as one of the major factors that determine AllStar’s financial performance. AllStar primarily rides on Allround’s strengths that include highest market share in its product segment, very high brand awareness, and a high conversion ratio. Allstar also has an organized management team as well as an organized and productive R&D department, enabling it to be an innovative leader in the industry across its portfolio. From the financial reports of the competitors, it can be observed that Allround has a lower...

...Benefits: Offer products that will meet the needs of the consumer from a multi-symptom perspective that will make them satisfied with our products and motivate them to repurchase.
3. Product Differentiation: Multi-symptom solution compared to competitors, such as, Besthelp
4. Side Effects: Offer products that minimize negative side effects, such as removing alcohol content to gain more physician recommendations.
G) Price
The pricing strategy will rely upon the following key factors:
1) Inflation/Deflation
2) Consumer purchase decision criteria
3) Balancing the tradeoff between price and symptom relief
4) Analysis of competitor pricing / competitor product offering / historical pricing
We will monitor the tradeoff graph in the PharmaSim module each period to ensure that we are pricing the product close to the optimal line (price vs. symptom relief). Thus far, we have learned that we need to continue increasing our prices to keep up with inflation and make some manual modifications to the price depending on the previous period’s price increase while monitoring what is happening in the future period regarding the economic factors.
Consumers’ purchase decision criteria will be the one of the main decision factors in determining how we price our product each period. We determined that the key element in the consumer purchasing decision is product effectiveness for Allround, which we can measure by customer satisfaction. We need to ensure that...

...Pharmasim Project
1. Executive Summary
The over-the-counter (OTC) cold and allergy remedy market was highly competitive. There were already 10 brands targeting in different segments at the beginning of the simulation. OTC cold medicine is effective to cure 3 major types of illness - cold, cough and allergy which associate with different symptoms like aches, nasal congestion, chest congestion, runny nose, coughing and allergy. Consumers can be segmented by young adult, young family, mature family, empty nester, retired. The products were sold to consumers in various channels including independent drug stores, chain drugstores, grocery stores, convenience stores and mass merchandisers.
Our mission was to make use of product mix, sales force allocation, advertising and promotion in order to maximize the profit of the company ALLSTAR. We aim at market leader in terms of net income, market share, shelf space and stock price. We also treat customer perception and satisfaction as our key performance indicators.
We particularly paid attention to our product portfolio so that there is one core product with stable financial performance to support future new product promotion. Our product portfolio includes 3 brands called ALLROUND, ALLROUND+ and ALLRIGHT and each brand focuses on different market segment with clear differentiation in order to minimize the cannibalization effect. ALLROUND is a core product targeting both cold and cough illness and also a...

...SECTION 1: THE PHARMASIM CASE
ALLSTAR BRANDS' OTC COLD MEDICINE GROUP:
The Allround Brand
ALLSTAR BRANDS CORPORATION. . .
. . . is one of the leading manufacturers of packaged goods in the world. Since its founding in 1924, the company has acquired or merged with a number of smaller packaged goods companies.
The management team at the over-the-counter cold medicine (OCM) group of Allstar Brands just completed its third presentation in the past month to the Pharmaceuticals Division manager regarding the status of the Allround cold medication. It is apparent, from all the attention the team has received, that the Allround brand it manages is of strategic importance to the company. Unfortunately for the team and the company, the fourth quarter performance reports for Allround were not as positive as management expected. Therefore, the OCM team has been under the intense scrutiny of senior management.
Overview
Allstar Brands' Allround product is the market share leader in the over-the-counter (OTC) cold and allergy remedy market. The consistent success of the brand in terms of profitability and sales has made it a critical component of the Pharmaceuticals Division's long-term strategic plan. The division anticipates that the brand's cash flow in the coming periods will allow the company to pursue new opportunities in emerging markets. However, the division manager responsible for Allround has become concerned with the competitive nature of the...

...﻿PharmaSim Case
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
11:15 AM
Introduction:
Management team at the over-the-counter cold medicine (OCM) group of Allstar Brands just completed its third presentation in the past month to the Pharmaceuticals Division Manager regarding the status of the Allround cold medication.
Problem:
Allround brand it manages is of strategic importance to the company. Unfortunately, the fourth quarter performance were not as positive as management expected.
Overview:
Allround is market share leader in the OTC cold and allergy remedy market.
Consistent success of the brand in terms of profitability and sales, critical component of the Pharmaceuticals Division's long-term strategic plan.
Brand's cash flow in the coming periods will allow the company to pursue new opportunities in the emerging markets.
Competitive nature of OTC cold remedy market is a concern.
Industry has seen several product introductions.
Major increases in promotional and advertising expenditures.
Competitive activity leading to declining market share and profitability for Allround (the brand has lost on full share point in the last period).
Company
Three divisions- Consumer, International, and Pharmaceuticals.
Consumer handles packaged goods (e.g. laundry detergent, shampoo, soap).
International distributes products on global basis and large presence in European market.
Pharmaceuticals responsible for marketing and production of ethical and OTC medications....

...Executive Summary
As the brand manager for Allround cold medicine, there were many decisions regarding product formulation, strategy, line extensions and product launches over the company’s last 10 periods. The brand was focused on remaining a profitable, mature product family within the cold medicine category, but also maintaining a premium brand image.
ALAN’S INITIAL STRATEGY. Please add, it should only be around 1 paragraph.
After a period of declining sales for Allround, we increased the advertising budget to be consistent with our competitor’s budget. We decided to be very consistent with our strategy over the ten periods; however, in hindsight we should have implemented a more dynamic strategy that factored in the changing preferences of our target segments, cannibalization from Allround, and channel relationships.
After the ten periods, we had a lower stock price than most competitors, an average cumulative net income, and average cumulative manufacturing sales. The high net income is attributable to the fact of Allright’s high margins, accounting for a growing part of our sales. We often saved part of our budget that could have been used more effectively to boost sales and therefore the stock price.
Looking forward, we will change our product mix and pricing to better target specific cold relief usage to alleviate the cannibalization from Allround and to provide a complete cold relief product portfolio. This will be accomplished by reformulating Allround...